BRIAN MAHIEU - Moonlit Snow - Quinault Meadow, Oil on Canvas, 36x24

Original oil on gallery wrapped canvas, 
36 X 24 X1.5 inches

This landscape is a meadow on the Kestner homestead, north of Lake Quinault. I love painting nocturnes and snow scenes. As kid I would often sneak out of the house on moonlit nights to ride horses until dawn or just explore the countryside with my friends. I took those memories and changed the values in this scene to create a nocturne, a ‘Herzlandschaft’—‘landscape of the heart.’ The shadows of the trees on the snow draw the viewer into the scene, ascending through the craggy boughs of a maple backlit by the cloudy moonlit sky. I love the contrast of the serene foreground and the tumultuous skies, and the symbolism of that.

Although this painting may look like a monochrome study in blue, it is a rich palette of analogous hues. The piece started out on a lilac imprimatura that shows through.  The many shades of blue are enriched by cobalt teal and purples with subtle warm russet-magenta and deep malachite tones in the treeline. Soft yellow light filters onto the scene from the moon.